Theater began in ancient Greece with rituals to worship the god Dionysus. It wasn’t until the ninth century that the Christian church allowed drama in the form of liturgical plays. Today theater thrives throughout the civilized world in many forms – from the familiar plays of the West to the Kabuki drama of Japan.

     Our Theater collection presents plenty of American and British fare, to be sure, but you’ll also taste the culture of other peoples through works from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Each expresses the flavor of both the playwright and his culture. Consider, for example, the light shed on the influence of communism when the Iron Curtain was raised and the world could watch the dramas coming out of Poland, Russia, and Czechoslovakia.